Success Story | Virginia

Virginia drivers trade long lines and phone calls for seamless SMS services

custom short codes made with AWS

5,433

license renewal emails sent

70%

reduction in standard wait for short code

OVERVIEW

The Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) sought to modernize its communication infrastructure by consolidating email and SMS systems under a single provider. With Granicus’ digital communications capabilities, the DMV obtained a streamlined, API-based solution to send secure, targeted notifications that enables Virginia drivers to get timely access to appointments and notifications. By leveraging Amazon Web Services (AWS), the DMV achieves enhanced delivery reliability, improved speed of message deployment, and increased efficiency.

"The implementation process was seamless; our teams collaborated effectively, and we’ve already seen improvements in delivery time and system reliability.”

Stephen Sales

IT Project Manager, Virginia DMV

SITUATION

Outdated infrastructure

Before adopting Granicus, the DMV used an in-house built notification system that couldn’t handle the volume of alerts they needed to send, nor did it have the flexibility to do SMS. This made the agency’s communication strategy fragmented, prone to delivery failures, and required significant developer oversight on pain points.

The absence of a unified platform for email and SMS notifications created inefficiencies and limited the department’s ability to scale its communication efforts. Without a dependable and productive way to reach citizens, the DMV couldn’t connect with the people it serves. Residents could miss important information related to license renewals, appointments, or other time-sensitive notifications — resulting in longer wait times for citizens, more phone calls to the DMV, and repeat efforts from staff with already low bandwidths.

SOLUTION

Collaborative communication

The DMV selected Granicus for its ability to provide secure, targeted messaging through both email and SMS under one roof. Key factors in the decision included Granicus’ FedRAMP certification, its state contract, and its U.S.-based infrastructure. Granicus’ digital communications capability also offered the flexibility to serve several distinct functions within the DMV — including e-notification, multifactor authentication for staff, and facilitating a more efficient appointment process through SMS.

With streamlined SMS services, users receive automated reminders to help minimize no-shows. SMS also serves as a reliable method for communicating urgent information — such as office closures or policy changes. This approach modernizes public service delivery, enhances customer satisfaction, and builds trust through user-friendly communication.

An additional selling point was the ability to leverage the collaboration between AWS and Granicus, which was instrumental in accelerating the process of acquiring custom SMS short codes for the DMV’s multiple use cases.

RESULTS

Improved efficiency and future-ready capabilities

Thanks to the cooperation between digital communications and AWS, what could have taken months was accomplished in days — which was a huge win in efficiency for the DMV’s team.

“Working with the Granicus team has been a great experience, their responsiveness and support made the transition from our old SMS provider smooth. We're excited to continue growing and see long-term potential in expanding our collaboration.”

Through the powerful combination of digital communications and AWS, the DMV is now empowered to use one tool to serve multiple purposes:

License renewal emails: The DMV can now send targeted, secure e-notifications to residents about upcoming license renewals.
Multifactor authentication (MFA): Secure MFA text messages from Okta to DMV staff is now a capability, creating a single sign-on process that simultaneously improves security and the employee experience.
Appointment reminders and check-ins: Using SMS, the DMV can significantly enhance communication with the public by enabling real-time, interactive exchanges. It allows individuals to get in line for their appointment without having to check in in-person.

The DMV reported that time to deliver messages has improved, and the system failures experienced with the previous strategy have been eliminated. Most notably, the new platform has freed up valuable developer time, allowing technical staff to focus on higher-priority projects rather than maintaining outdated infrastructure.

Looking ahead, the DMV plans to expand its use of Granicus solutions by implementing two-way SMS capabilities across all of its agency communications. This evolution will further enhance the department’s ability to engage with citizens in real time and with greater personalization.